The Transylvanian Diet (; ; ) was an important legislative, administrative and judicial body of the Principality (from 1765 Grand Principality) of Transylvania between 1570 and 1867. The general assemblies of the Transylvanian noblemen and the joint assemblies of the representatives of the "Three Nations of Transylvania"the Hungarians, Székelys and Saxonsgave rise to its development. After the disintegration of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary in 1541, delegates from the counties of the eastern and northeastern territories of Hungary proper (or Partium) also attained the Transylvanian Diet, transforming it into a legal successor of the medieval Diets of Hungary.
The diet sessions at Vásárhely (now Târgu Mureș; 20 January 1542) and at Torda (now Turda; 2 March 1542) laid the basis for the political and administrative organization of Transylvania. The diet decided on juridical, military and economic matters. It ceased to exist following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, when Transylvania was returned to the control of the Diet of the newly empowered Hungary.
Background
Transylvania ("Land beyond the Forests") was a borderland in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. The development of royal administration is documented from the second half of the 11th century. The royal castle at Torda (now Turda in Romania) was first mentioned in 1075, the fortress at Küküllő (now Cetatea de Baltă in Romania) in 1177. Most royal castles developed into the seats of counties, which were important administrative units, each named for its center. A high-ranking royal official, the voivode was the superior of the ispáns (or heads) of the Transylvanian countiesDoboka, Fehér, Hunyad, Kolozs, Kraszna, Küküllő and Torda. from the late 12th century.
A separate royal official, the Count of the Székelys, lead the Hungarian-speaking Székelys from the 1220s. The Székelys had moved from other regions of the kingdom to Transylvania and formed a community of free warriors. Their administrative units were known as "seats" from the 14th century. The seatsUdvarhelyszék, Csíkszék, Sepsiszék, Orbaiszék, Kézdiszék, Marosszék and Aranyosszék. were headed by elected officials. The Székelys initially held their lands in common. However, disparity between wealthy and poor Székelys grew, enforcing royal legislation to acknowledge the existence of Székely groups of diverse status in 1473. Thereafter, only the wealthiest Székelys fought in the royal army on horse; those who could only fight as foot-soldiers started to lose their political rights.
The ancestors of the Transylvanian Saxons settled in the southern and north-eastern regions in the 11th and 12th centuries. In 1224, Andrew II of Hungary granted privileges to the Saxons who inhabited southern Transylvania, putting them under the authority of a royal official, the Count of Hermannstadt, and authorizing them to freely elect their local leaders. After a Saxon rebellion, Charles I of Hungary abolished the office of the Count of Hermannstadt and appointed royal judges to head the Saxon districts in 1324. However, the wealth of the Saxon merchants, who controlled the trade routes towards Wallachia and Moldavia, enabled them to gradually achieve the restoration of their autonomy. In 1486, Matthias Corvinus united the Saxon communities under the leadership of the elected mayor of Hermannstadt, who was thereafter known as the Count of the Saxons.
The Gesta Hungaroruma book of debated reliabilitystated that Vlachs (or Romanians) had already been present in Transylvania in the late 9th century. The earliest contemporaneous records evidence that Romanian communities existed in southern Transylvania in the first decade of the 13th century. In contrast with the Roman Catholic Hungarians, Székelys and Saxons, the Romanians adhered to the Orthodox Church. Their administrative units were known as lands or districts. The Romanian districts were initially located in royal estates, but most of them were given away to noblemen or prelates by the end of the Middle Ages, or the local chiefs (or knezes) achieved the acknowledgement of their ownership from the kings.
Development
General assemblies
General assemblies of the noblemen from one or more counties developed into important forums of the administration of justice in the entire Kingdom of Hungary in the second half of the 13th century.
The chiefly Hungarian noblemen formed the highest level of the society in the Transylvanian counties. The wealthiest nobles owned dozens of villages, but most noble families had only one or two villages, or only a part of a village. They had specific privileges, such as tax exemption (from 1324), and the right to administer justice in their estates (from 1342).
Székely chiefs could only seize private landed property in the counties, outside Székely Land. The wealthiest Saxons also attempted to acquire landed property in the counties, outside the jurisdiction of the Saxon communities.
Romanian leaders were obliged to render services (primarily of military nature) for the lands that they possessed, their position being similar to the status of the "nobles of the Church" and other groups of conditional nobles. Consequently, they were not regarded real nobles, but the monarch could award them with nobility. The ennobled Romanians adopted their Hungarian peers' way of life, but dozens of Romanian noble families remained Orthodox for centuries.
In comparison with Hungary proper, the autonomy of the Transylvanian counties was limited, because the voivodes restricted the development of their self-governing bodies. The general assemblies of the Transylvanian counties disappeared in the middle of the 14th century. Instead, the voivodes or their deputies held general assemblies for all noblemen from all the counties of the province. The first recorded general meeting of the "nobles of the realm of Transylvania" was held in Keresztes at Torda (Cristiș, later Oprișani in Romania) on 8 June 1288. The assembly authorized the vice-voivode, Ladislaus Borsa, to assist the representative of Peter Monoszló, Bishop of Transylvania, in taking possession of three villages of a noble family to secure the payment of a fine. The administration of justice remained the principal task of such meetings, but the noblemen who attended the assemblies also regularly discussed other subjects, including the collection of the tithe or custom duties. Initially, all noblemen were entitled to be present, but from the 15th century, the counties sent delegates to the assemblies.
The general assembly of the Székelys could be convoked by the Count of the Székelys, or by the captain of Udvarhelyszék. The internal issues of the Saxons communities were initially regulated by the assemblies of the Saxon seats and districts. From 1486, the Count of the Saxons presided over the annual general assemblies of the entire community, which consisted of the highest-ranking officials of the seats and districts and elected delegates.
The monarchs or on their behalf the voivodes could also convoke the representatives of all privileged groups of Transylvania to meet at a joint assembly. Andrew III of Hungary was the first king to hold such an assembly for the representatives of the Transylvanian noblemen, Saxons, Székelys and Romanians in early 1291. According to Andrew's charter mentioning the meeting, the king ordered the return of two domains to Ugrin Csák after those who attended the general assembly testified that he had been their lawful owner.
Union of the Three Nations
Transylvania was regularly raided by Ottoman armies from the 1420s, forcing the monarchs and the local authorities to strengthen the defense of the province. At the initiative of Sigismund of Luxembourg, King of Hungary, the general assembly of the Transylvanian noblemen ordered in 1419 that one third of the noblemen and one tenth of the peasants were to take up arms in case of an Ottoman invasion against the Székely and Saxon territories.
New taxes were introduced and the old taxes were increased to cover the costs of defense, which outraged the peasantry. After George Lépes, Bishop of Transylvania, demanded the payment of the tithe that he had failed to collect in the previous years, thousands of Hungarian and Romanian commoners and lesser noblemen took up arms against him in early 1437. They routed the army of the voivode, Ladislaus Csáki, in July. Without seeking royal authorization, the vice-voivode convoked the noblemen and the leaders of the Székelys and Saxons to hold a joint assembly at Kápolna (now Căpâlna in Romania). At the meeting, the representatives of the noblemen, Székelys and Saxons concluded a "brotherly union" on 16 September, pledging to provide assistance to each other against their internal and external enemies.
The agreement of the three privileged groups gave rise to the idea of the "Union of the Three Nations of Transylvania", which replaced the previous concept about the three Transylvanian regions (that is, the counties, and the Székely and Saxon seats). The noblemen (including the Székely, Saxon, Romanian nobles who held landed property in the counties) made up the Hungarian nation, but the Hungarian peasants were excluded from this group. The Székelys formed a separate nation, although they spoke Hungarian. The Saxons who lived in the privileged districts were the members of the Saxon nation, but the Saxon population of the counties was not included.
The "brotherly union" was first confirmed on 2 February 1438, after the fall of the peasant revolt. The representatives of the Three Nations again confirmed their alliance in 1459, expanding it against all who threatened their liberties. The regular meetings of the delegates of the Three Nations developed into "Transylvania's foremost representative" assemblies, providing basis for the Transylvanian Diet.
The legislative function of the assemblies strengthened in the second half of the 15th century. In 1463, the representatives of the "Three Nations" ordered that the poorest noblemen and the Hungarian peasants should stay behind to defend the province although King Matthias Corvinus had ordered a general mobilisation against the Ottomans. In 1494, the general assembly forbade the collection of the extraordinary tax that Vladislaus II of Hungary had introduced, forcing the monarch to personally come to Transylvania and preside over the next general assembly. The role of the separate general assemblies of the Székelys also strengthened. A general assembly which was held without the consent of the Count of the Székelys in 1505 established a supreme court for Székely Land.
Disintegration of Hungary
Transylvania was mentioned as a regnum (or realm) in royal charters already in the second half of the 13th century. When writing of the regnum Transylvanum, the royal charters initially referred to the Transylvanian noblemen who formed a closed community "bound together by certain reciprocal rights and duties". The Székely and Saxon communities were included in the concept only after the confirmation of the Union of the Three Nations in 1459. The Tripartitumthe compendium of the customary law of Hungary, completed in 1514explicitly acknowledged that Transylvania was a separate realm, with her own peculiar customs, but it also emphasized that Transylvania was an integral part of the Kingdom of Hungary. The laws of the Kingdom of Hungary were to be applied in Transylvania and the decisions of the royal courts of justice were also to be obeyed in the province. Unlike the autonomous Kingdom of Croatia, medieval Transylvania was not a separate Land of the Holy Crown of Hungary, it was simply an administrative district, and an integral part of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary.